Wikileaks to release more Afghan war docs, despite concerns

Wikileaks is preparing to release 15,000 more documents on the US war in …

Wikileaks says it plans to release the remaining 15,000 classified documents it has collected on the US war in Afghanistan, despite the Pentagon's strong disapproval. Wikileaks spokesperson Julian Assange made the announcement Thursday in a video to the Frontline Club and said the organization had gone through about 7,000 of the documents so far, though he did not specify when Wikileaks planned to release them.

The release will follow last month's dump of some 90,000 war documents, many of which detailed how deeply Pakistan, a US ally, is tied to the Afghan insurgency. Although much of what was revealed is not news to those who closely follow the war in Afghanistan, the documents offered excruciating detail about just how much info the US military had about those ties.

US National Security Advisor Jim Jones criticized the release of the documents, saying that Wikileaks had threatened US national security and had potentially "put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk," not to mention the lives of Afghan informants. Jones reiterated the US's plan to deepen partnerships with both Afghanistan and Pakistan and to defeat common enemies.

Now, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell has essentially the same sentiment. "It would compound a mistake that has already put far too many lives at risk," Morrell said, according to the Associated Press.

Reporters Without Borders also published an open letter to Assange, saying he showed "incredible irresponsibility" by publishing the Afghan war documents. "Wikileaks has in the past played a useful role by making information available to the US and international public that exposed serious violations of human rights and civil liberties which the Bush administration committed in the name of its war against terror," wrote Reporters Without Borders' Jean-François Julliard and Clothilde Le Coz.

"But revealing the identity of hundreds of people who collaborated with the coalition in Afghanistan is highly dangerous. It would not be hard for the Taliban and other armed groups to use these documents to draw up a list of people for targeting in deadly revenge attacks."

None of this seems to faze Wikileaks, though. Assange claimed the organization was combing through the files to ensure that no Afghans would be hurt, but said that the documents would be published no matter what.

Jacqui Cheng
Jacqui is an Editor at Large at Ars Technica, where she has spent the last eight years writing about Apple culture, gadgets, social networking, privacy, and more. Emailjacqui@arstechnica.com//Twitter@eJacqui